Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones

Review date: September 14, 2004.
Last modified
03-Dec-2011.

The best headphones in the world are all "open".

That is, their little sound-making drivers are suspended in space
close to the ears, surrounded by an ear-cup that generally plays some
part in the sound of the headphone, but is basically just an open
framework to hold the driver in the right place and protect it from
damage.

You could take the drivers out of a lot of open headphones and
suspend them next to your ears on a piece of coat-hanger wire, and you'd
still get much the same sound.

Some open headphones are really obviously open - Sony's sci-fi
MDRF1s are a standout. But you can see light through the ear-cups of
many open 'phones if you turn them around a bit.

Acoustically, all open ear-cups are very much the same; the only big
differences between them (he said, smiling benignly at the headphone
designers who're now angrily waving thick wads of technical
documentation at him) are where exactly they hold the drivers relative
to your ears. The idea of the open design is to make ear-cups that have
pretty much no acoustic signature of their own, so you can listen to the
driver by itself, not the driver plus the resonance of the chunk of
plastic and metal over your ear.

As you'd expect, though, open headphones let sound in, and out.
Outside noise will make it to your ears, and your music will leak out
into the outside world. There's no way around this, and it makes open
'phones unsuitable for use in a lot of situations. Various workplaces,
public transport, monkey-houses, and, of course, noisy computer rooms.
You may have a lovely pair of Beyer
DT 880s, or Sennheiser
HD 650s, or Stax
exotics, and that's great - but only when there's not much ambient
noise, or anybody nearby who doesn't want to share the treble portion of
your program material.

The solution is sealed, or closed, headphones. They, as the name
suggests, put a little sealed cup over each ear, and put the driver
inside. Actually, they may seal inside the ear, as is the case
with
Etymotic and other "canalphones", but if you
want comfortable headphones that can be put on and removed in a second,
you want plain old "circumaural" (around the ears) sealed headphones.

There are "supra-aural" sealed headphones, too; they've got the same
basic kind of ear-cup, but it's small and the pad sits on top of the ear
rather than around it. Sennheiser's HD 212 Pro
and PX 200 models are good examples; one's
surprisingly good, one's not so much.

And then, there's the HD 270, which I reviewed
along with the 212 Pro. The HD 270 is not a good headphone. For the
money, it's a downright bad headphone. I, therefore, approached
the HD two-eighty
with a certain amount of trepidation.

These headphones are, to give them their full name, Sennheiser's
HD
280 Pro, 64 ohm version. As distinct from the HD 280-13, which is a
300 ohm version of the same thing. The basic model's lower impedance is,
for most users, better; it means headphone outputs that can't manage a
whole lot of voltage will probably still be able to drive the 'phones to
impressive volume. For weedy portable players you often really want 32
ohm 'phones, but sealed phones mean you have less outside noise to
compete with, so 64'll do.

The HD 280 Pro sells for about $US100 (versus less than $US70 for the
worth-maybe-$US15 HD 270s). They aren't quite your ISO Standard Modern
Circumaural Sealed Headphones, but they've got all of the usual
features. A cable that enters at only one side (so they won't catch on
your chin when you take them off), softly padded headband and ear-cups,
a 1/8th inch plug with a 1/4 inch adapter (of the screw-on type, so you
shouldn't be able to lose it), and enough adjustability to suit most
people's heads.

My head's not particularly bulbous, but I only need to extend the HD
280s' adjustable headband by two clicks on each side to make them fit;
there are 12 clicks available, giving a total of about four centimetres
of extra headband length on each side. So if your head's really big,
these 'phones should have you covered. If it's really small, I recommend
you try before you buy.

Comfort-wise, these are as good as any circumaural sealed 'phones
I've used. Which is to say, they don't float on your ears like fluffy
clouds, but I nonetheless don't mind wearing them for hours on end
(unlike
certain ear-squishing Beyers I could mention).

The 280s are hard to keep on your head if you pop just one ear-cup
off so you can hear people talking to you, and/or look like a cool DJ.
To make them stay when I did that, I had to yank the removed ear-cup
down to its maximum size setting. The 280s' high-pressure headband also
means that these headphones may try to block your
carotid arteries if you take them off your head completely and wear
them around your neck. So maybe you shouldn't do that.

One other slight comfort-reducer is that the HD 280 cable is a retro
curly cord, with a minimally-stretched length of about a metre and a
half, and a useless twanging maximum length of about three metres. If
you're right next to whatever you're listening to, curly cords are
pretty cool, as long as you can flop them across your lap and don't need
to leave the whole thing hanging from your left ear. If you're listening
at a distance, though, you'll have to get an extension cord.

One advantage of the curly cord is that it's minimally microphonic -
tapping or scraping all but the very end of the curly portion doesn't
result in much sound being conducted up the foot or so of straight cable
that feeds the HD 280s' left ear-cup. This is more important for sealed
headphones than for open ones, because the sealed design emphasises
microphonic effects - try plugging your ears with your index fingers and
then rubbing the backs of those fingers with your middle fingers to see
what I'm talking about.

Unlike most circumaural headphones, the 280 Pros have two-way hinges
on their ear-cups. This means pretty much nothing when you're wearing
them, but when you want to pack them away, hang them up or transport
them...

...you can fold them flat...

...or tuck them up like this. The tucked-up position makes it
difficult for random objects to stab the soft parts of the ear-cups.

Articulation aside, the ear-cups are pretty ordinary...

...with the usual foam-filled cushions covered with pseudo-leather.

Most decent headphones let you replace their ear and headband
cushions, and that's the case for the 280s; it's quite easy to slip the
pads off the ear-cups...

...though it may take a little practice to get 'em back on
again. The headband cushion should be less tricky; it's retained with a
Zip-Loc sort of fastener.

There's another reason why you might want to remove the cushions,
though. See the two little silver screws in the above picture? Remove
them, and the back of the ear-cup comes off...

...which lets you get at the point where the cable plugs in to the
left ear-cup. So you can replace the cable without having to do any
soldering of minuscule wires.

This is not nearly as good as the setup used by some more expensive
headphones, including several pricier Sennheisers, where the cable plugs
in via some kind of stereo mini-jack. That arrangement makes it very
easy to replace the cable, and it also protects the headphones from
damage if the cable pulls taut for some reason. The little plug just
pops out.

A fiddly internal plug like this, though, still beats the heck out of
the traditional hard-wired system, where you can't replace a cable
without electrical microsurgery.

The plug setup, by the way, also apparently makes it possible for a "Sennheiser
service partner" to convert the HD 280s into a headset, by changing the
cable and replacing the left ear-cup cover with one that supports a boom
mic.

Listening

The HD 280 Pros are
billed
as being "designed for professional monitoring applications". There are
tons of really awful headphones out there that're described with some
combination of the words "Pro Studio DJ Digital Hi-Fi Reference" in
front of the word "Monitor", but Sennheiser actually mean something by
it.

Monitor headphones, like monitor loudspeakers, are meant to have
flat, uncoloured, un-exaggerated response across a wide frequency range.
They're not meant to sound "sweet" or "bassy"; they're just meant to
deliver the input signal cleanly to your ears.

This isn't the philosophy of most sealed headphones. It's easy to
make a sealed 'phone with a lot of bass, so that's what a lot of
manufacturers do - including Sennheiser, with some of their models. The
HD 280 Pros, though, don't have phat bass.

In the manual (available in PDF format
here), Sennheiser quote the HD 280 frequency response as being from
a perfectly adequate 25kHz to a tooth-loosening 8Hz - but those are the
minus ten decibel (dB) points, which aren't actually very informative.
Neither is their frequency response plot, which is pleasingly (some
might say suspiciously...) flat, but which only extends down to 90Hz at
the bass end.

The normally accepted limits of frequency response are the points
where the graph dips 3dB below the zero dB line, never to return.
Sennheiser would appear to prefer you not ask about that.

But have no fear; HeadRoom,
who kindly supplied my review HD 280s,
have checked. They
reckon
that the HD 280s' bass response is already some 5dB down at 110Hz, dribbling down to -10dB at about 50Hz.

This actually isn't that bad, though. Yes, this response plot looks a
lot more mountain-rangey than Sennheiser's
don't-worry-your-pretty-head-about-it marketing graph, but it actually
does qualify these headphones as decent mid-priced monitors; there's a
bit of a hump around 350Hz, but the rest of the midrange up to 2kHz is
nice and flat, and the wiggly-worm stuff above that is on par for
cheap-ish headphones in general and sealed 'phones in particular. Monitors often sacrifice some bass for overall accuracy; if you want the
bass back and you're not listening at high volume, you can use equalisation.

HeadRoom's
isolation graph - showing how effective the headphones' sealing is -
is also worth a look. Sennheiser claim, somewhat implausibly, that these
headphones offer 32dB of isolation. That would put these quite
comfortable headphones almost in the same class as things like the
goodbye-outside-world
Etymotic earphones, which most people
(including me) find much less comfortable, and which are also quite a
lot more expensive.

Look at the HeadRoom graph, though, and you can see that the HD 280s
do indeed manage better than 32dB isolation here and there, but only
here and there - "here" being somewhere around 3000Hz, and "there" being maybe
4700Hz. And, like all conventional headphones, their bass isolation is
lousy; everything below about 400Hz gets right through. The Etymotics
are
clearly
much, much better.

That said, though, the 280s do have good isolation. If you're
trying to block out low rumbling background noise then they're not much
use, but for midrange-to-treble rushing noises - very much including
typical computer room and office noise - they're excellent, considering
their price and comfort level.

So, I hear you ask, what do they actually sound like?

Well, as I expected, they're not as good as a decent open headphone.
My everyday 'phones are Sennheiser's not-especially-well-regarded
HD
590s (I got 'em cheap on eBay from Germany, before people started
sending me headphones for free...), and the difference between those
open-backed headphones and the HD 280s is very clear.

The 590s are quite a bit more comfortable, of course, since they
don't need to seal against your ears, but they also have obviously
superior bass. And they have more... space. Clarity.
Pompatus.

I could rabbit on further, but I'm pretty sure that apart from the
bass response difference, and some high frequency clarity as well, the
HD 280s fall short because of those unavoidable sealed-headphone
resonance problems. I've heard far, far worse sealed headphones - like
the poor old HD 270s, for instance - but midrange resonance just won't
go away in sealed headphones, and it inescapably masks some detail.

But, and it's a big but, the HD 280s do not sound bad.
In my opinion, anyway. I'm sure some people think they're terrible,
unlistenable, ghastly. If these were open headphones, I'd recommend you
try something else. There are definitely better sounding about-$US100
'phones out there.

But the 280s are sealed, and that can be a big plus.

I listened to my usual audiophile-onanism reference tracks, I
listened to some
completely stupid things, I played games and watched movies, and at
no point did I find the HD 280s annoying. And, unlike the 590s and every
other open headphone out there, I could wear the 280s in my fan-filled
computer room and listen to things at quite low volume without being
annoyed by fan noise leaking through.

When wearing open headphones, I can drown out the racket of my
computer room by winding my 'phones up to a continuous level around 70
to 75dBA, if my sound level meter poked into the ear-cups can be
believed. This shouldn't be harmful, but it can still be fatiguing,
especially if you're listening to certain
program
material. If you're trying to cope with more noise, or listening to
music with quiet passages that you don't want to hear noise through,
then you'll need more volume to block it out with open headphones. And,
godsofthisearth
notwithstanding, winding your music up to or beyond the volume of a
nearby
garbage
truck, chain saw or pneumatic drill may leave you unable to
enjoy music any more. It's definitely better to block the outside racket
than to try to out-shout it.

Pricing fun

These headphones are
about
a hundred US bucks from HeadRoom. HeadRoom, as usual, are about as
cheap as non-rip-off dealers get; feel free to
shop around, but unless you're outside the USA, you shouldn't expect
to save much, once you factor in shipping.

HeadRoom are nice people, and know their stuff; I'd say that about
them even if they didn't keep sending me free toys. US shoppers will
definitely do well to buy from them.

But what if, like me, you're in Australia - but, unlike me, you don't
get these things for free?

Well, depending on which way the
exchange rate's swinging when you read this, the HD 280s' US price
is likely to translate into less than $AU150. Take into account
importing expenses, local warranty support and so on, and a local price
of $AU200 would be eminently justifiable. $AU250 would count as mild
gouging.

Regrettably, the local delivered price for HD 280s is actually almost
$AU300. That's what Aus PC Market
charge for them, and you won't find 'em significantly cheaper
anywhere in this country, because the
local distributor
requires all local resellers to toe the line on list prices, or receive
no more stock to sell. They don't do this for all locally
available Sennheiser headphones, but they do it with the 280s.

UPDATE: As of 2008, Aus PC Market are selling HD 280 Pros for only $AU253 including delivery anywhere
in the country. This still isn't a great price (especially now that the US dollar is worth only slightly more
than the Australian dollar), but it's definitely worth mentioning.

(Aus PC Market list the headset version of the 280 too, but you'll
laugh when you see
the price. No wonder they haven't bothered to get any in stock. [As of 2008, they aren't selling 280 Pro
headsets at all any more.])

HeadRoom ship everything via FedEx, but even if the shipping costs
$US50, that still only works out at about $AU215 at the moment. [About $AU157, as of mid-2008. From here on,
I'll update all of the numbers to match mid-2008 prices.]

So what are Aussies getting for their extra $AU100 or so (a bit more
than that, if they buy from a dealer who'll cheaply air-mail your
headphones to you from the USA)?

Well, delivery in one to two working days instead of... maybe five,
tops, for FedEx.

And a local warranty, though you shouldn't expect it to cover
wear and tear on things like cushions and cables, which are all
you're likely to need to replace.

Hmm.

The distributors aren't making giant fortunes by jacking up prices
like this; the Aussie resellers make a very healthy margin on the higher-priced Sennheisers, thank you very much. But they have to make
this margin even if they'd be happy to sell the headphones for less; if they price them lower, the distributor
won't give them any more to sell.

So Australians who want to support their local hi-fi store or
on-line dealer or whatever,
and/or reckon the local warranty's worth the money, should by all means
buy things like the HD 280s locally. If you'd rather pinch some pennies
and buy from overseas, though, I really can't blame you.

As I said, Australians don't pay cranked-up prices for every
Sennheiser headphone. Just several.

The AusPC
page I linked to above, for Sennheiser's high-end HD 650s, lists
them for an imposing $AU627 delivered (it was $AU737 when this review first went up, in 2004!). HeadRoom
list
them for $US499 ex delivery, which is about $AU520, as I write this - but they've got one of those "e-mail
us for the real price" deals going on, and their actual price is (whispers) $US150 less.
Ahem.

At the more sensible end of the price scale, the excellent
PX 100 portable phones
sell locally for $AU82.50 delivered
(down from $AU99 when this review first went up), while HeadRoom
have
them for $US49.99 ex delivery ($AU52 or so; up from $US39.99 when this review first went up); so the
Aussie price for them is not too dreadful,
considering shipping costs. The HD 212 Pro is
$AU110 delivered
here, $US59.99 ex delivery
there
(about $AU63).

But then there are the similarly priced
HD
457,
HD
477 and
HD
497, whose Australian prices were in 2004 something like 1.8 times the US
price, making them cost easily 1.5 times what they should. They're a bit cheaper now, but I think the markup
remains large. It beats me.

Overall

The HD 280 Pros are decently comfortable, and seem quite sturdy
despite their clever-clever ear-cup hinges, and they're somewhat
repairable, if their sturdiness should fail. So they're a really good,
practical, comfortable sealed 'phone for anybody who wants to listen to
music, or games, or whatever, in a somewhat noisy environment. They're
not the Kings Of Bass or hi-fi 'phones par excellence, but what bass
they have is pleasingly undistorted, and I found it very easy to come to
terms with their sonic shortcomings.

I think a lot of people will, like me, rather like the way these
headphones sound. Especially if you're accustomed to cheap and nasty or
gimmicky headphones, as an awful lot of
people are.

At about $AU300 delivered, the 280s weren't quite as compelling. Now that they're $AU253 delivered, they're a
better deal - but still not really a good one.

Still, though, if you'd like some packable, wearable, isolating,
good-sounding 'phones for the office, LAN party, crèche, server room or
long train trip, you could do a lot worse than check the HD 280 Pro out.